POTUS

Donald Trump’s presidency was largely marked by obfuscations of truth, nationalist propaganda, dog-whistle racism and malignant inaction on public health and safety matters.

His administration's crass and unconventional treatment of the office has been punctuated by his antagonistic approach to media and communication.  

Due to the frequency of Trump’s tweets, most of us became calloused and numb to their content. However, while many of us condemned his online presence, thousands of loyalists were watching closely and absorbing his words as fact. His unchecked account doubled down on the encouragement of violence on his behalf and in the name of “patriotism” as the 2020 election slipped away from him. 

Echoing his praise of white nationalists in Virginia three years earlier, Trump called armed right-wing militants crowding into a Michigan hearing and brandishing weapons outside of the Governor’s office, “very fine people.” In a last-ditch power grab, Trump called for his supporters to attend a “wild” protest to stop the certification of U.S. election results, and he encouraged extremists to stage a deadly insurrection at our nation’s capital. The storming of the Capitol on January 6th was the climax of Trump’s most dangerous year. He radicalized his base and fed the public a constant stream of disinformation. 

These collected images speak to some of the notable #PRForBad moments that defined his final year in office.